It isn’t long now until the joyous day that Harry and Meghan once more make Britain their home, but several aspects of their return are still clouded in mystery. We have no idea, for instance, where they are going to be living – although the Cotswolds have been mooted. Once they arrive there, there is also the rather vexed question as to whether their no doubt hugely expensive security is going to be privately funded or the taxpayer’s burden.
Two former home secretaries have gone public to argue that there should be at least some level of taxpayer-funded protection for the Sussexes. This may not be a wildly popular perspective but can at least be justified on humanitarian grounds. Lord Blunkett told the Sunday Times that he believed that there was a ‘happy medium’ in terms of the security that they might be offered, which would consist of ‘security where you have one or two officers who travel’ with the couple, and which could then be reassessed in a couple of years’ time, depending on need. Blunkett justified this on the grounds that:
It all adds up to something of a headache for Shabana Mahmood
I think on a temporary basis it is, because he is still a very close member of the royal family, irrespective of what duties he’s undertaking on their behalf, and he’s still in the top ten in line for the throne…I think that we just need to take a deep breath, take a step back and say, well, can’t we manage something that is seen by everyone to be rational, understanding but not necessarily permanent?
